“You should probably keep that to yourself. Astrid’s plenty mad as it is. She had some ugly things to say about Miranda.” Tara planned to keep mum on the topic, too. She enjoyed having plausible deniability.
“Just like we need to keep the pregnancy under wraps.”
“I need to write all of this down. I can’t keep up.”
Grant’s eyes went wide. “I have one more for you.”
“You do? Something bad?”
“I need you to keep this between us, okay? Just for a few more days.”
“Yes. Of course.” A shiver went down Tara’s spine. She didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“Johnathon split his shares of Sterling Enterprises between the three wives.”
If it wasn’t for the swift breeze that blew Tara’s hair to the side, she would have thought the earth had stopped spinning on its axis. “What? Why?” This made no sense. Miranda was the obvious heir to that stake in the company. She was going to be so upset when she found out.
“He knew that you didn’t quite get your fair share when you two split up. Sterling never would’ve taken off the way it did if you hadn’t been there at the beginning.”
That much was true, and she’d never really gotten over the way Johnathon had pushed her out. “Wow. So he actually acknowledged that.”
“And Astrid was there for him when the company was growing so fast that he was hardly ever home. I think he always felt guilty about that. As for Miranda, that’s fairly self-explanatory.”
The wheels were starting to turn in Tara’s head. She’d been so eager for a chance to pivot to something new and more exciting. To build something, not merely sell it and cash in. Her father had told her to stop waiting to be happy. Was this her chance to do exactly that? “It’s going to take me some time to sort out why he would do this.” A new wave of sadness hit Tara, washing over her. There was a part of her that would always love Johnathon, faults and all. “Did you two talk about it?”
“We talked about everything. You know that.”
“So you knew all along?”
“Not about this.” Grant looked off in the distance, unknowingly flaunting his strong profile. “No. This, he kept from me.”
“I’m sorry. That’s not right.”
He turned back to face her. “You don’t need to apologize for him. I hope you know that by now.”
“What happens next?”
“Max will call a meeting with all three wives. Which is why I’m telling you ahead of time. I need to know if you’re going to be on my side.”
Tara raised both eyebrows at him. What was he saying? “Your side?”
“You know how hard I’ve worked. Sterling Enterprises should be mine to run.”
Now she was starting to see where this was going. Grant was going to make a play for her shares, and possibly those of the other wives. She wasn’t about to commit to anything now. She needed time to think. “You know I adore you.” It was good to butter up a man.
“I don’t actually know that.”
“Well, I do. But I’m sorry. The only side I can promise to be on is my own.”
Three
Grant had spent days trying to figure out how this meeting with the three wives would play out, and he couldn’t imagine a best-case scenario, one in which they agreed to sell their shares of Sterling to him. His position was admittedly weakened by the fact that he would have to buy them out over time. A substantial chunk of money now, but he’d need time to raise the rest of the capital. He simply didn’t have that much cash lying around. His considerable assets were tied up in investments. He’d had no way of knowing that Johnathon would die. There’d been zero time to plan.
Money aside, the personalities of the three wives were a huge X factor. Miranda was normally levelheaded, but understandably distraught. With the pregnancy complicating things, there was no telling where her loyalties would lie. Astrid was vengeful and angry over the secrets Johnathon had kept from her, and those feelings would likely only become more intense once she found out about Miranda and Johnathon’s baby on the way. Tara was her own wild card, even when she could certainly be counted on for smart and reasonable decisions.
Tara was his most likely ally, but he had a real weakness for her. If anyone was capable of persuading him to do something foolish, it was Tara. Many times over the years, Grant would run into her and find himself searching for reasons to forget about loyalty, if only for one night. Yes, he’d promised Johnathon that he’d never go there. He’d kept his word. But his best friend was no longer here.
Then there was the fact that Johnathon had essentially screwed him out of a chance at reasonable company control by dividing the Sterling shares between the wives. So how far did the promises they’d made to each other go, now that Johnathon was gone?
“Are we ready for this?” Grant paced back and forth in Max’s sprawling office, lined with mahogany shelves stocked with law books. His hands were clammy. The back of his neck felt damp. There was no telling how this would go. Badly came to mind.
“I was ready days ago. You’re the one who asked for a delay. And I only obliged you in that request because we’ve known each other for so long. The wives should have been notified about this right away. I should have told Miranda at the hospital that her husband pulled the rug out from under her.”
“Her husband had just died, for God’s sake. Is that really the lasting memory you wanted to plant in her head? That in this instance he shorted her on what was rightly hers?”
A knock came at the door. Max’s personal assistant stepped inside. “Mr. Hughes, the Sterling wives have arrived.”
“Thank you.” Max rose from his seat and buttoned his suit jacket.
